Casinos and other forms of gaming comprise a growing multi-billion dollar industry wherein electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines have become increasingly popular in recent years. In a typical electronic gaming machine, such as a slot machine, video poker machine, video keno machine or the like, a game play is first initiated through a player wager of money or credit, whereupon the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and then potentially dispenses an award of some type, including a monetary award, depending upon the game outcome. Many additional gaming machine components, features and programs have been made possible in recent years through this proliferation of electronic gaming machines, including those involving linked progressive jackpots, player tracking and loyalty points programs, and various forms of cashless gaming, among other items. Many of these added components, features and programs can involve the implementation of various back-end and/or networked systems, including more hardware and software elements, as is generally known.
Electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines can include a variety of hardware and software components to provide a wide variety of game types and game playing capabilities, with such hardware and software components being generally well known in the art. A typical electronic gaming machine can include hardware devices and peripheral such as bill validators, coin acceptors, card readers, keypads, buttons, levers, touch screens, coin hoppers, player tracking units and the like. In addition, each gaming machine can have various audio and visual display components that can include, for example, speakers, display panels, belly and top glasses, exterior cabinet artwork, lights, and top box dioramas, as well as any number of video displays of various types to show game play and other assorted information, with such video display types including, for example, a cathode ray tube (“CRT”), a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), a light emitting diode (“LED”), a flat panel display and a plasma display, among others.
In addition, electronic gaming machines and gaming systems often employ cashless instruments for ease of paying out winnings to users, which can involve the use of ticket printers and other associated hardware and software components. Such cashless instruments can include, for example, paper tickets used in the EZ Pay® system by IGT of Reno, Nev., among others. Of course, other suitable items or devices can be used as such cashless instruments as well, and it is understood that the present invention is directed to all such items. Paper tickets in particular are printed by a printer at the gaming machine upon the request of a player at the completion of a game or gaming session, and signify a cash amount owed to the player, a portion of which might represent cash winnings owed to the player. Such paper tickets typically include appropriate currency or credit amounts, as well as various identification features printed on them, which can include a validation number or code.
It will be readily understood that such a validation number or code can be called a variety of names, such as a confirmation, identification, verification, and/or authentication number or code, among others, and that any such term or terms can be used where the basic function is to identify a specific cashless instrument that has been issued at a specific time and location. Such a verification number or code on a printed ticket is typically used in association with a matching confirmation number or code that is stored on the system, such that a match can be made with a recorded and outstanding number when a ticket is offered or received, whereby the ticket can be determined as valid and thus be accepted. For purposes of consistency within the present disclosure, the term “validation number” (or code) will be used with respect to printed tickets or other cashless instruments, while the term “confirmation number” (or code) will be used to denote those numbers or codes that are stored on a system.
Unfortunately, such printed tickets or other cashless instruments can be vulnerable to fraud in some instances, particularly where such tickets or systems of tickets are used in relatively simple formats. For instance, some cashless instruments and printed ticket systems might employ the use of a confirmation or identification number or code series that is generated according to a pattern or system that might be relatively easy to distinguish. A careful examination of several of such printed tickets or other such cashless instruments might reveal the pattern, system or some portion thereof, thus making it possible for a thief or other unscrupulous party to attempt to create counterfeit printed tickets that could be fraudulently redeemed for cash.
While existing systems and methods for providing printed tickets and other cashless instruments associated with gaming machines and gaming systems have been adequate in the past, improvements are usually welcomed and encouraged. In light of the foregoing, it is thus desirable to develop methods and systems for preventing or reducing fraud and other potential problems associated with printed tickets and cashless instruments, and in particular for detecting such counterfeit tickets and cashless instruments.